Explosive materials and the detonators and igniters used to initiate the explosive materials are widely used in the civil and construction industry, military use, the oil and gas industry, mining and quarry use, and demolition.
Although millions of detonators and igniters are distributed and used every year for the purpose of initiating explosive materials, inventory management of the movement of these initiators from the source of origin, to the mine site and thence to the site magazine, is predominantly reliant on manual recordal of information at each distribution point.
For example, upon manufacture the initiators are typically packaged in bags, and then boxed. Both the bags and the box are provided with a bar code sticker recording, amongst other things, the batch number, the box number, the date of manufacture, the total weight and number of initiators included in the bag and/or box. The boxes of initiators are then transported to a destination and tracked only by a bar code system which is reliant on manual recordal of information at the point of manufacture, distribution and destination.
When the boxes of initiators arrive at a particular mine site, the detonators are booked into a site magazine. The total number of initiators is logged into the site magazine upon arrival, as is their withdrawal from the site magazine for blasting operations.
The above system not only relies on timely recordal of the number of initiators withdrawn from the site magazine, but also on the accuracy, honesty and integrity of the persons recording said information. If the initiators are misplaced or stolen, the above system provides little assistance in tracking the whereabouts of the missing initiators. Furthermore, if an unaccounted for initiator is retrieved, there is no way of precisely determining its provenance.
The present invention seeks to overcome at least some of the aforementioned disadvantages.
It is to be understood that, although prior art use and publications may be referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that any of these form a part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.